p See notes m and » i 2 Cor. v. 17. r Isai. lv. 13.
s 1 John ii. 20, 27. l Heb. viii. 10. " 2 Cor. iii. 18.
x Eph. ii. 18.
Gen. ii. 2, 3. On the seventh day, God ended his ivork which he had made: and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work, which God created and made.
THOUGH we know no reason on God's part why he should proceed in the work of creation by slow and gradual advancement, instead of perfecting the whole at once ; yet we may conceive a reason on the part of man, who is enabled thereby to take a more minute and deliberate survey of all its parts, and from every fresh discovery of the creation to derive fresh themes of praise to the Creator. This idea seems to be countenanced by the institution of a Sabbath immediately after the completion of the sixth day's work. At all events, this is the improve- ment which it becomes us to make of the Sabbath : in speaking of which we shall shew,
I. The reason of its appointment —
God, after finishing his work, " rested, and was refreshed a." Whether this expression be merely a figure taken from what is experienced by us after any laborious and successful exertion, or whether it intimate the complacency which God felt, as it were, on a review of his works, we cannot absolutely de- termine. But his sanctifying of the seventh day in consequence of that rest, shews, that he consulted,
1. His own glory —
[As " God made all things for himself," so he instituted the Sabbath in order that his rational creatures might have stated opportunities of paying him their tribute of prayer and praise. If no period had been fixed by him for the solemnities of public worship, it would have been impossible to bring mankind to an agreement respecting the time when they should render unto him their united homage. They
a Exod. xxxi. 17.